Despite an inexperienced team in its first road test of the year playing from behind all game in a hostile conference rivalry environment, Louisiana Tech didn’t panic.

Western Kentucky, the two-time defending Conference USA champion, owned a 13-game conference winning streak at Houchens-Smith Stadium and entered the fourth quarter ahead, 22-13. Recent history had already written it off.

The only thing that could allow a young team to erase a nine-point deficit and pull off the largest comeback victory in six years was the players and coaches had to learn together on the fly.

“We were down, but there was no panic, it was very calm,” said Bulldogs head football coach Skip Holtz during his weekly press conference Tuesday. “It was very business-like, there became a little more sense of urgency. This team has bought into the mantra of it’s a 60-minute game.

“I was proud to watch them grow and come together and see the mindset and the togetherness that we had to play on the road. We’re learning so much about our team.”

Led by several offensive players playing in their first C-USA road game, Tech didn’t play like a young squad, down two scores with less than 8 minutes to go. Redshirt sophomore quarterback J’Mar Smith completed two big passes for 50 yards while running back Jarred Craft ripped off a 25-yard run and receiver Kam McKnight took a handful in for a 2-yard touchdown run that capped an experienced-looking 91-yard drive that cut WKU’s lead to 22-20 with 6:08 to go.

On their next drive with Smith throwing an interception on an attempted deep ball as the Hilltoppers had a chance to ice the game starting at their 16 with 3:31 remaining, the Bulldogs easily could’ve folded.

Tech’s defense rallied around its quarterback. Redshirt junior defensive end Jaylon Ferguson got his second sack of the game on third-and-7 to get Smith and the offense the ball back with 1:55 left. Unlike the majority inexperienced unit that they are, Louisiana Tech (2-1, 1-0) churned out a methodical eight-play, 58-yard march to set up senior Johnathan Barnes for the game-winning, 21-yard field goal with 2 seconds on the clock.

“We work two-minute drives every day and they only get 30 seconds when we do it in practice. Our players looked at me like, ‘Coach, relax there’s 1:52 left. We do this with 30 seconds all the time. We’re good, we got this,’” Holtz said. “I thought the team and J’Mar showed a lot of patience and poise in that final minute. I was as proud to see him overcome the mistake he made.”

Smith threw for a career-high 306 yards in his first C-USA game, while wide receivers Rhashid Bonnette and Teddy Veal career days with 140 receiving yards and nine catches, respectively.

That game-winning drive and the performances of some of his younger teammates encouraged senior running back Boston Scott.

“A lot of people say you learn a lot about a team when they’re hit with adversity. I think we were hit with adversity in one of the more hostile environments to be hit with adversity and that’s on the road and that’s at a two-time defending Conference USA champ,” Scott said. “To see the way we battled, to see the way we fought back and never gave up, I’m really encouraged about the team. Whenever adversity may hit in the future, I don’t really have any doubts about us fighting back and competing.”

Tech avenging last season's league title game loss at Houchens-Smith and getting its first win at WKU will help the team this week for its second straight road contest at Williams-Brice Stadium facing South Carolina.

“Of course, it helps our morale,” Bulldog junior linebacker Brandon Durman said. "We’ve been on the road and winning a big conference game like that, it definitely helps our spirits, helps us as team. It shows a lot of improvements and it shows we can be a team that we want to be, a championship team.

“Going into South Carolina, it helps us have confidence being on the road against an SEC team. We have a lot of guys feeling good about Saturday.”

What he saw out of his team has Holtz encouraged about where his football team is headed after the WKU trip, sitting atop the C-USA Western Division standings at 1-0.

“I think it was critical that we found a way to win that game. Knowing who it was against and we had to go play on the road and their home record and everything. I’d say there weren’t a lot of people that picked us to go win that game,” Holtz said.

“Nobody panicked, nobody flinched. We were losing and rather than everybody getting uptight, upset, everybody just got into a, ‘Hey, here we go, we got to get this going.’ If we can play four quarters with that sense of urgency, we have a chance to be a better football team.”

Louisiana Tech travels to South Carolina (2-1) Saturday with kickoff scheduled for 2:30 p.m. The game will be broadcast on SEC Network.

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